Illinois has become the 12th state — and the first in the Midwest — to authorize the compassionate option of medical aid in dying.
Medical aid in dying allows eligible terminally ill adults to seek a prescription for medication they may choose to self-ingest to bring about a peaceful death if their suffering becomes too great.
In their brief, Compassion Legal urged the Sixth Circuit to affirm a District Court’s decision that speech about healthcare options available in other states is constitutionally protected, even when that option is not legal in a person’s state of residence.
This appeal is part of the third lawsuit of its kind filed by the Institute for Patients’ Rights since 2023; they also challenged access to existing medical aid-in-dying laws in California and Colorado. Access to medical-aid-in-dying was not interrupted in either of those cases, and the California lawsuit was similarly dismissed at the district court level.
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